Before Pelosi landed, China banned food imports from more than 100 Taiwanese suppliers. On Wednesday morning, China’s Ministry of Commerce halted natural sand exports to Taiwan, without elaborating, and customs officials added boycotts to some fish and fruit imports.

Separately, Chinese organizations, companies and individuals were banned Wednesday from dealing with Taiwan companies including Speedtech Energy and Hyweb Technology, China’s state-run CCTV reported.

China is Taiwan’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade of $328.3 billion last year, giving Beijing a strategic advantage. Still, China must tread carefully as it needs Taiwan for semiconductors. 

Eoin Treacy's view

The military actions expected around Taiwan over the next few days will grab headlines but are unlikely to do much more than that. The impending economic countermeasures are more likely to have an effect on stock prices.


Apple and Tesla are two obvious subjects of consumer boycotts. Neither of their shares exhibit any recognition that this is a possible threat. That’s because these issues have not generally lasted very long in the past. The issues Japanese companies have had in China have made a lot of headlines, but did prove to be the causal factor in either long-term success or failure for their shares.  

This article from NPR focusing on the inability of innovative US companies to source funding for vanadium redox flow batteries and the willingness of China to buy the patents may be of interest. It’s a dilemma for every promising startup. China will spend to acquire technology and develop it. The market is much more competitive in Europe and the USA with the risk that promising companies slip through the cracks. There is a lot of talk about decoupling but that ignores the need for joined up thinking in what kinds of technology attract investor funds.